Organic Gardening with Minimal Time & Effort

Gardening Moms Get Kids to Love Eating Vegetables

One mother and student in our garden membership, Harvest Club, shared a story with us. It’s one that holds a clear message of why growing your own food is just, well… superior.

As a mother and wife she struggled to get her kids and partner interested in vegetables. They simply didn’t like them. And she wouldn’t be the first. Parents all over the globe struggle to get their kids to eat fresh food. It’s so common that kids don’t want to eat fresh vegetables and fruits. And really, who can blame them?

The moment a food is picked from the earth it’s connected to, it begins to die. It starts to lose nutrients and begins to decompose. That means that by the time it travels who knows how far and sits in storage and on shelves for who knows how long, it has lost so much vitality and flavor, no wonder kids don’t like it!

But when this mother started growing her own, the kids and her partner began eating vegetables in just a single growing season! It seemed like a miracle!

Happy young woman with daughters planting seeds in garden

Really, it’s the power of fresh, nutrient-dense food. And it’s the power of variety. Large farm producers choose plant varieties most often by how much it can produce and traits like how long it can live on the shelf. Some even choose variety based on how uniformly it will grow in the field. But large scale growers aren’t choosing their varieties based on nutrition.

Garlic is a great example of this: Hardneck garlic doesn’t store nearly as long as softneck. So most of the garlic you see in the store is softneck. But hardnecks have more allicin in it. If you’ve never heard of allicin before, it’s the principal bioactive compound present in garlic and is in study for a variety of health benefits.

Back to the story of mom … all was going well during the growing season for mom until one unfortunate week, she ran out of fresh greens. She decided to pick some up from the store. When the daughter began eating the greens at dinner that evening, her mouth twisted.

“Ewww! These taste really bad!” her daughter exclaimed, removing them from her mouth.

The mother felt she had spoiled her family and worried that her daughter may never be able to eat greens from the store ever again!

Our first thought? That’s wonderful! Because homegrown food simply tastes better. And science is now discovering that there is a link between flavor and nutrients. So the more flavor your food has, the more nutrients it contains.

And this isn’t just important for us. By growing a variety at home, we are sharing that nutrient density with our loved ones and preserving the best varieties, for our children and future generations to come.

Happy African American family enjoying gardening at home

Mom’s goal when she joined Harvest Club was to grow a garden and get her family to eat fresh greens. Mom, you nailed it! Thank you so much for sharing your story and for being a fresh food revolutionary! And a huge thank you to all the mothers out there growing fresh, homegrown, nutrient-dense food.

Have a story about your kids eating fresh?

Share below!

Soil Blocks: Considerations and Benefits of Soil Blocking for Your Seed Starting

Wondering if soil blocking is for you? Some people love them, some people think they are a pain in the flower pot. For the latter group of people, they typically feel that way because they don’t realize you need to create a special mixture and often need to add more water so that the media holds together without a container. So getting the mix correct can take a little bit of experimenting, but once you get the hang of it, there are quite a few benefits to soil blocking. But before you jump on the soil blocking bandwagon, there are several factors you’ll want to consider before you decide whether or not it’s right for you.

Cost

To soil block the traditional way, you ideally want soil blockers. So there is special equipment needed for this process. And these soil blockers are an investment. Most decent soil blockers cost around $100. That’s quite an expense for many of us home gardeners. That’s why we were stoked to discover these 2” soil blockers from Bootstrap Farmer.

At the time this blog was written, the soil blocker is going for half of what they normally go for. And often a cut in price means a cut in quality. But Bootstrap Farmer is known for only carrying supplies they use on their farm. So they’re high quality, durable supplies that hold up on a farm. This makes them even longer lasting in most home gardening environments. Bootstrap Farmer also carries a smaller ¾” soil blocker. If you want to plant in the ¾” and then transplant to the larger 2” soil blockers later, be sure to get the inserts for that.

While there is an investment cost up front, soil blockers will last for years and years, often they can last longer than a lifetime with very small replacement costs!

Earth Saving

Not only will they save you money from disposable and plastic pots over time, they save the earth too. Who wants to keep the earth cleaner and their pocketbook more full at the same time? We sure do!

Now, if you’re a first year grower, you might want to wait until you have a few years of gardening under your belt and be sure that you plan to make gardening part of your lifestyle before investing.

Time

Soil blocking can be a bit more time consuming while you’re getting the hang of it. Soil block seed starting mix recipes are a bit different than other mixes because the mix has to stick together to maintain its shape. And it has to be dense enough to keep its shape, but not so dense that it suffocates seedlings.

Getting the mix just right requires patience and persistence. If you’re short on time or in a hurry, this may not be the ideal seed starting method for you. Once you get your recipe down and get
accustomed to filling and emptying the block maker, making your seed blocks will go more quickly. Just be prepared to spend extra time in the beginning getting the hang of it.

Healthier Root Growth

Aside from lasting a lifetime and being a fast process once you get the hang of it, seed blocking offers healthier root growth because the block is exposed to the air on all sides (versus meeting the edge of a pot). This prevents roots from wrapping around each other the way they do in pots. Instead, the roots will grow up to the edge of the soil block and then stop growing.

While you might think that it’s a ‘bad’ thing that the roots stop growing, soil blockers have noticed that while the roots stop growing, they maintain health and often show superior health compared to roots bound to a container.

Avoid Transplant Shock

Transplanting plants grown in containers means disturbing the roots. By disturbing the roots, the plants go into what growers call transplant shock. It can take them up to 3-4 weeks to recover from this shock. In some cases, the plants’ immune system is compromised and the plant doesn’t make it.

With soil blocking, there’s little to no transplant shock since you don’t have to pull the roots and media out of anything before planting. You simply place the whole block into the ground. Reduced stress means a shorter recovery time and an increase in your plants’ ability to maintain optimum health!

Faster Harvests

With a minimized transplant shock recovery time, your plants can resume growing sooner and that means they can mature more quickly and give you more harvests!

Easy Upgrades to Larger Blocks

Indents in blockers allows you to easily nest a smaller block into a larger one, so a baby plant that’s outgrowing its block can be placed inside a larger block easily and keep growing.

No More Sanitizing Trays!

While you’ll still need to clean your soil blocker, you’ll save so much time and chemicals not having to clean and sanitize transplant containers. For anyone with a substantially sized garden, this is a dream come true!

Soil blockers are for anyone who wants to get away from plastic and the constant financial and environmental stress of manufacturing disposable/biodegradable pots, has a little extra time and money, wants a high ROI (Return on Your Investment) over time, and wants healthy seedlings for your garden.

So how do you soil block? Stay tuned for more blogs on soil blocking!

Want to learn more about seed starting?

Check Out Our Seeds Micro Course!

Have questions about soil blocking?

Ask Your Questions Below!

[Recipe] 🥗 Dried Fruit Vinaigrette

Whether you are harvesting fresh veggies from your outdoor garden or from an indoor windowsill garden in your kitchen, the freshness makes a world of a difference!

Today we are sharing with you a recipe that you can make as something to help you craft a wonderfully lively salad without too much forethought; a great companion to anything from your year-round garden.

This recipe allows you to get creative with adding various combinations of dried fruits to the recipe. It is a wonderful way to use dried pears, apples, berries or other fruits you may have from your harvest or farmer’s market. This vinaigrette carries sweet, tart, and savory flavors; both light and well-rounded.

It is best if the vinegar is mixed with the onions/shallots and dried fruit at least a night/day before. This gives time for the vinegar to start to denature the onions (mellowing their sharp flavor – also called acid denaturation) and to both rehydrate the dried fruit and to infuse their flavors.

Get creative! This is far from a one-off recipe. Feel free to try this with a variation of dried fruits, vinegars, alliums, spices, herbs, oils, etc.

Enjoy exploring and creating with your garden! 🥗

Download or Print the Dried Fruit Vinaigrette Recipe Here

Share how YOU like to enjoy vinaigrette!

Determinate Vs. Indeterminate Tomatoes: What to Know

Tomatoes are one of the most prized garden plants. With hundreds of varieties, who can resist those sun-kissed bursts of flavor? But when new growers plant tomatoes, they often experience issues or total failure for one reason: there are two different types of tomatoes.

The type of tomato you grow will determine when you harvest, what you harvest for, and what type of support you need to provide for your precious tomato plants. So what are the two types of tomatoes and how do you know which type you should grow?

Type 1 – Determinate Tomatoes

The first type of tomato is called a determinate tomato. It’s called ‘determinate’ because we know that it will grow to a specified height. Since these tomato types grow to a determined height, growers typically use cages.

These types of tomatoes typically ripen all at once, making them the perfect choice for canning, sun-drying, or other bulk preservation methods. You can also eat them fresh, but they’ll only give you a few weeks worth of fresh harvests and they are usually less juicy. This makes them perfect for sauces, but not so ideal for that off-the-vine, fresh, juicy flavor we enjoy so much.

Keep in mind that if you’re growing determinate tomatoes, you want to follow the spacing on the seed packet carefully. These types of tomatoes should not be pruned much, if at all. If you prune them too much, they won’t produce as many tomatoes for you. That means you need to space them according to the packet (or even a little further apart) so that they get plenty of air flow. Keeping good air circulation will help prevent tomato plant diseases.

Type 2 – Indeterminate Tomatoes

The second type of tomato is an indeterminate tomato. Instead of growing to a determined height, these plants are actually vines and will continue to grow and produce as long as the environment allows. So if you grew these in a greenhouse under the right conditions, they would just keep growing and producing! These tomato types will give you fewer tomatoes all at once, but they’ll continue to produce all season long. This makes indeterminate tomatoes the perfect choice for your fresh, weekly harvests.

Since these types of tomatoes keep growing, they absolutely need a trellis. First time growers often try to use a cage for these types of tomatoes. But this vine-type plant will quickly take over the cage. The result is bent cages, fallen tomatoes, and often, other plant damage to nearby plants! So if you want those sun-ripened delicious tomatoes, choose an indeterminate and give your plant a nice strong, sturdy trellis.

For a video on a super easy trellis system, check out this video! The ability to trellis makes them a great choice for smaller garden spaces that need to use vertical space to maximize their garden harvests. And while determinate tomatoes can’t be pruned, indeterminate tomatoes can be pruned all throughout the tomato season. This has allowed growers to cheat a bit on the spacing recommendations listed on the seed packet… but that’s a blog for another time. 😉

Tomato Determinate vs. Indeterminate | GYOV

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• 10 Tips to Growing Tomatoes… and More of Them!
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Spirit Gardening [Stage 5] The weirdest spirit gardening secret I know

What if I told you that you could have SO much abundance in your garden that you’ll start to RIP OUT plants to make room?

I know this may sound out there or far-fetched. But it’s totally possible when you live in the 5th stage of Spirit Gardening… AWE!

This one stage has the power to completely make all other stages feel like a warm up to true Spirit Gardening. I’ll explain how in a bit…

But first let’s talk about how we get to awe.

If you’ve noticed a theme so far, kids know how to do this a lot better than adults! The whole world leaves us in AWE when we’re kids after all!

Remember thinking that your Dad was the strongest man in the world?

Or that your Mom made the best mac and cheese EVER?

That’s because you were probably living in a state of awe. Everything is new and exciting! And there are all these people around us who have more experience at this “life” stuff.

When you’re young… you might’ve felt like these people had superpowers or magic at their fingertips.

*spoiler alert* They probably didn’t use magic, but what they DID give you is much more powerful…

You might even be thinking right now… what could possibly be more powerful than superpowers??

One word… LOVE!

Yes, as a kid you might’ve had a lot of people sending love your way. And it feels AMAZING!

You might’ve gotten bedtime stories before you went to sleep…

You might’ve gotten animal crackers and juice boxes when you needed a break during the day…

Or you maybe had play time and recess when it was time to move your body…These are all ways the world shows you LOVE when you’re young!

*sidenote* Why did we stop all of this as adults?? I think a regular nap & juice box time would solve a lot of the world’s problems and make us all happier too…

And here’s a not-so-surprising surprise… this technique works for your garden too!

You may have seen two plants Ikea did a study on in my Spirit Gardening talk at the Superfood Garden Summit. They experimented with “loving” one plant and “bullying” the other one. The result?

The plant they loved thrived and the one they bullied struggled:

The same lesson works in your own garden too. If you focus on what is thriving and love it, you will start to help it thrive even more! To be honest, I don’t know exactly how it all works.

But I’ve seen it work for my students too many times to think this isn’t real.

Somehow when you focus your love on what thrives, it expands!

It wants to grow even more for you and make even more delicious herbs and vegetables!

And if something doesn’t respond to your love, guess what?

You can actually PULL it from your garden. Yes, that’s right. You can take plants out of your garden at any time.

Because here’s the counter-intuitive truth… the thriving parts of your garden will be more than happy to take up the space! This may seem totally crazy, but it works. And if the plant you’re pulling out is one you really want to harvest this year… don’t worry!

Sometimes just pulling out one plant that is doing so-so and replacing it with a fresh starter is enough. Eventually (and with enough love), you will get to harvest all the vegetables and herbs you want. All plants respond to love. But you don’t need to go crazy loving on your plants either (but you can if you want to!)

Sometimes just having your morning coffee with your plants and telling them what good things might be happening in your day is enough.

And if you want MORE examples on how gardeners like you love on their plants, Join me LIVE tomorrow!

I’ll be sharing some of my favorite techniques for living in Stage 5 of Spirit Gardening, Awe.

It’s really a magical stage to be in once you practice for a while!

You don’t have to “pass through” the other stages to get to Awe either. I’ll show you how to reach stage 5 of spirit gardening even if you haven’t practiced the other 4 stages yet.

I’d LOVE to see you there. 🙂

Peace and AWE,
Stacey

Save Your Spot

“How to Practice Spirit Gardening LIVE Q&A” with Stacey Murphy

April 5th, 2023
[10am PT / 1pm ET]

Join Stacey LIVE to help you answer any gardening mindset questions or challenges you have.

REGISTER HERE

Spirit Gardening Stage 1
Spirit Gardening Stage 2
Spirit Gardening Stage 3
Spirit Gardening Stage 4

Enjoying Stacey’s Spirit Gardening Series? Share your ‘AhHa’ moments with us!

Spirit Gardening [Stage 4] Better mindset, better garden

Gardening is the best way to get the freshest, healthiest food.

But what if I told you that it turns out that gardening does a lot to keep your MIND healthy too?

Because studies have shown that gardening provides equally incredible health benefits for your brain including:

• Reduced stress and anxiety by making you feel more peaceful and content.
• Boosting your self-esteem when you see your hard work pay off with a bountiful harvest.
• Improving attention span and concentration by focusing on a task without the usual indoor distractions.
• Encouraging social bonding when you garden with others or share your harvests in your community.

And that’s just from “traditional gardening.”

When you start to apply Spirit Gardening, it takes these health benefits and amplifies them. That’s why in the 4th stage of Spirit Gardening, Evolve…

…you focus less on action and more on feeling!

Today you’ll take what you’ve learned from the previous three stages and decide how to grow and evolve from it.

Here’s how…

Stage 1: You had wonder and curiosity and you asked questions.
Stage 2: You listened to your plants and noticed things about them and your garden.
Stage 3: You took playful action.
Stage 4: Now your garden has responded to what you did and you’ll choose how you respond to your garden.

Your garden’s response may or may not be what you expected. Maybe you wanted bigger zucchini and a more abundant harvest. But instead, you got similar-sized zucchini from last year and less of them.

This is where the opportunity to evolve and grow lies. Because no matter what your outcomes are… you get to choose the “story” attached to what happens!

Many people react to not getting the result they wanted with guilt, anger, or shame. They feel like a failure. Like something they did caused them to fail. But I want to introduce a very special idea to you (one that’s taken me years to understand)…

What happens in your garden is not your fault. But how you choose to respond to what happened is your responsibility.

Your garden is an amazing place to connect with and work through these darker emotions. It’s okay and totally normal to feel that guilt, anger, and shame! But when you Spirit Garden you’re able to release those emotions because these feelings are just teachers to help you get closer to your goals next season.

…and you always win! Because you either got what you want or you gained a lesson.

In one case you got what you wanted (yay!). Or you learn a priceless lesson that you will never forget!

In this stage, as you grow and evolve you’ll come to realize that your garden does so much more than nourish and rejuvenate your body. It nourishes and rejuvenates your mind as well.

These are the things that are going to improve your garden. It isn’t focusing on tactics and strategies. It’s focusing on your feelings and the lessons you learn about life.

You’re going to feel more successful AND I promise that given enough time, you will see positive results.

Whether this sounds crazy to you or like the best form of therapy, this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Which is why I want to invite you to join me LIVE for my training,“How to Practice Spirit Gardening Q&A”.

I’ll be answering your questions about Spirit Gardening and how it can help improve your garden, your mindset, and your overall well-being.

This is the way to lifelong gardening success. This is the way to love your garden. This is the way to appreciate the plants, animals, and people in your life.

Peace and carrots,
Stacey

Save Your Spot

“How to Practice Spirit Gardening LIVE Q&A” with Stacey Murphy

April 5th, 2023
[10am PT / 1pm ET]

Join Stacey LIVE to help you answer any gardening mindset questions or challenges you have.

REGISTER HERE

Spirit Gardening Stage 1
Spirit Gardening Stage 2
Spirit Gardening Stage 3
Spirit Gardening Stage 5: Coming Tuesday, April 4th

Enjoying Stacey’s Spirit Gardening Series? Share your ‘AhHa’ moments with us!

Spirit Gardening [Stage 3] The secret that makes gardening fun

Have you ever seen children playing house? (Or remember doing it yourself!)

Pretending to be adults going about their everyday life. Going to work, making dinner, going shopping. They turn things that we adults often find dull and boring into play.

And they have a blast doing it!!

It turns out (and numerous studies have shown this) that imaginative play is how children develop their social, emotional, and language skills.

Play is learning.

There are reasons that so many math games, reading games, and science games exist. You and I are designed to learn more when we’re having fun!

This is why Play is the 3rd stage of Spirit Gardening.

This is what makes Spirit Gardening different than learning from a book (or even any one of my other courses!)

Instead of thinking “I want to plant tomato seeds because that’s what everyone grows in my neighborhood,” you say “what do I think would be fun to grow?”

You go get the seeds of the plants you actually want to grow, you plant them, and then you see what happens.

In this stage, you want to take the curiosity and wonder questions of stage 1. Then combine it with the ease and observations you made in stage 2. Put them together and what do you get?

You get inspired action that feels like PLAY!

What have you noticed around your garden? What questions have those observations raised for you? Listen to the little intuitive hits, the ones that seem to come out of nowhere. Trust those and try them.

Maybe you saw a toad in your garden. It sits peacefully in the corner, observing just like you. Maybe you felt a connection with that toad and think about putting in a toad house.

You have fun with it! Maybe you create a cute little toad village. Even if it takes up some of your precious gardening space.

Your little toad friend moves into his new toad abode. After a few weeks, maybe you notice more toads hanging around your garden. You might also notice those caterpillars that were leaving holes in your broccoli leaves have mysteriously disappeared.🐸🍴🐛

When you approach gardening this way you’ll find surprising things happening. Some will be good, like toads acting as a natural pest control. Some not so good like dandelions making a home in your new flower bed. But here’s the beautiful thing about approaching your garden with a playful mind…

There’s no failure in play.

When you approach your garden in a playful way it will always feel like a success! You’ll be excited to come back and learn, to experiment, and see what happens. You might even discover a new gardening breakthrough!

So if you want more inspiration to turn gardening into play, join me on August 7th for my LIVE QA Training.

I’ll share even more ways you can add play and have fun in your garden.

Peace and Playfulness,
Stacey

Save Your Spot

“How to Practice Spirit Gardening LIVE Q&A” with Stacey Murphy

April 5th, 2023
[1pm PT / 4pm ET]

Join Stacey LIVE to help you answer any gardening mindset questions or challenges you have.

REGISTER HERE

Spirit Gardening Stage 1
Spirit Gardening Stage 2
Spirit Gardening Stage 4: Coming Monday, April 3rd
Spirit Gardening Stage 5: Coming Tuesday, April 4th

Enjoying Stacey’s Spirit Gardening Series? Share your ‘AhHa’ moments with us!

Spirit Gardening [Stage 2] How do you “Be Ease”?

Have you ever had a job where it felt like your boss might’ve been looking over your shoulder?

Like they were “just checking in” to make sure you’re working?

When you have a boss like this, it’s easy to pick out work that makes you “look busy”…

(Even when you don’t have any real work to do.)

It may sound strange, but this is relevant to your garden too…

Because many gardeners I’ve met treat their garden like a “job” where they have to constantly stay busy. Or they start to feel like they won’t get their payday of a harvest at the end! They say they HAVE to be working when they’re in the garden.

And they put a lot of pressure on themselves for not doing enough planting, weeding, pruning, watering, harvesting…

Sometimes it can feel like their mantra is “There’s always SOMETHING to do!”

But is it actually true that working all the time gives you a better garden?

Well you might want to consider these truths…

A seed that gets the right amount of sun and moisture will sprout. 🌞🌱Nature flourishes and thrives without any help from us. I know it’s hard to believe, but sometimes doing less IS more. Especially in your garden.

That’s what today’s stage of Spirit Gardening, Ease, is all about.

But how do you “do ease?” Here’s a helpful question to ask yourself…

When do you feel the most “at ease”? 😌

Think about going to your favorite coffee shop to meet your best friend. You feel relaxed and comfortable. You can tell your friend anything and not feel judged. You can even just sit in silence observing the goings-on around you and feel at peace!

That is “doing ease!” And it’s something you can achieve in your garden every day.

When we’re “at ease,” we’re most observant of the world around us. You can take in the little things in nature and, most importantly… listen to what your plants are telling you!

Being at ease is also a state of being with yourself. You’re trusting your intuition and what you feel is right for your garden.

I’ve learned more about what my garden needs from taking a few minutes a day to just sit among my plants than I have in hours of diligent tending and weeding.

And going to your garden shouldn’t feel like going to work. It should feel like visiting with your best friend. You want to sit in your garden and observe. Breathe, relax and enjoy being among your plants.

So that’s your goal for this stage of Spirit Gardening.

Have one day this month where you just SIT in your garden and be at peace instead of “doing” your next project.

Of course, if you want to know more about how to “do ease” in your garden. Or how to turn down the volume on the “boss” in your brain telling you what you should and shouldn’t be doing, register below for my FREE live QA event.

In this training I will answer your questions about the 5 stages of Spirit Gardening and how they can help you get more joy and abundance from your garden.

Peace and Ease,
Stacey

P.S. — Watch Stage 3 tomorrow where I show you how to have more FUN in your garden while growing even more than ever before!

Enjoying Stacey’s Spirit Gardening Series? Share your ‘AhHa’ moments with us!

3 Keys to Successful Indoor Seed Starting

Growing your own healthy plants from seed can be tricky. Even expert growers have trouble keeping their seedlings alive and well. Luckily, three simple keys are all you need to focus on.

Discover how to start your plants off right so they thrive. Be sure to stick around to the end for a Bonus Key!

Masterclass on YouTube:

Vegetables & Herb Plants 101: Plant Biology and Lifecycle

Do you have a successful seed story? Please share!

Vegetable & Herb Gardening in Different Growing Climates

Getting to know your local growing climate is one of the first steps to growing a thriving vegetable garden. But there’s a big difference between learning about your climate and feeling limited by your climate.

Your growing climate matters. It determines what veggie varieties you’re going to grow and when you plant and harvest them.You’ve probably heard that vegetables and herbs thrive in an “ideal” temperature range of 50-85 F (10-30 C). But how many places on Earth consistently stay in that ideal range? Not many!

You don’t have to live in ideal conditions to grow lots of food all year long.

There’s no denying great growing conditions help. But once you understand the language of plants and what they want, you can grow vegetables anywhere at any time of year. You just have to get a little creative!

“There are as many creative ways to grow your own vegetables as there are places on this earth” -Stacey Murphy

In this two minute video, Stacey shows you what’s possible if you want to grow food at an unusual time of the year OR in a less than ideal growing climate.